NCI's Steven Rosenberg Awarded Keio Medical Science Prize ► NCI Cancer Bulletin for November 27, 2012 - National Cancer Institute

NCI Cancer Bulletin for November 27, 2012 - National Cancer Institute

NCI's Steven Rosenberg Awarded Keio Medical Science Prize

Dr. Steven Rosenberg

Dr. Steven Rosenberg, chief of surgery at NCI’s Center for Cancer Research, has won a 2012 Keio Medical Science Prize for his development of immunotherapies for patients with cancer. Japan’s Keio University awards the prize each year to recognize research achievements in the fields of medicine and life science.
Dr. Rosenberg was the first to show that stimulating the immune system with interleukin-2, a protein that helps regulate immune responses, could cause durable tumor shrinkage in patients with metastatic melanoma and kidney cancer. Dr. Rosenberg and his colleagues have identified and characterized dozens of tumor antigens—molecules on cells that can generate immune responses—that have been widely used in the development and study of cancer vaccines.
Dr. Rosenberg also led efforts to improve the effectiveness of immunotherapies by pioneering a technique called adoptive cell transfer, which has led to durable, complete cancer remissions in a number of patients with metastatic cancer. His recent work using genetically engineered T cells was the first to successfully treat patients with advanced metastatic melanomas, sarcomas, and lymphomas that did not respond to standard therapies.
Further reading: “A Transfer of Power: Harnessing Patients’ Immune Cells to Treat Their Cancer;” “Complex Immune-Based Cancer Treatment Shows Signs of Progress;” and “Genetically Engineered Immunotherapy for Advanced Cancer”